Can anyone help me to explain why this sentence is incorrect?

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Real_Princess

#484088 Sun, 02 Mar 08 04:13 PM

Hi,

I would appreciate any help to explain in grammatical terms why the following sentence doesn't work:

* I didn't talked to Simon on Sunday.

Is it because a past simple verb cannot follow another past tense? It is obviously incorrect, but I'm not sure how to explain this to my German friend.

I'm not a qualified teacher, but I live in Germany at the moment and have been trying to help some of my friends with their English. They usually ask

for grammatical explanations Tongue Tied

Thank you Smile

Real_Princess

Joined on Sun, Mar 2 2008

New Member (07)

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Verbs, Tenses, Past Tenses, Past Simple

Susankay

#484090 Sun, 02 Mar 08 04:19 PM

Simple past is talked - I talked, you talked, we talked, etc.

However since you are using the helping verb "did", you use

I did talk

you did talk

he does talk

we did talk

you (plural) did talk

we did talk

I did not talk to Simon on Sunday.

Susankay

Joined on Sat, Jan 19 2008

Full Member (201)

Verbs, Plurals, Simple Past, Helping Verbs

Clive

#484094 Sun, 02 Mar 08 04:25 PM

Hi,

I would appreciate any help to explain in grammatical terms why the following sentence doesn't work:

* I didn't talked to Simon on Sunday.

Is it because a past simple verb cannot follow another past tense? It is obviously incorrect, but I'm not sure how to explain this to my German friend.

I'm not a qualified teacher, but I live in Germany at the moment and have been trying to help some of my friends with their English. They usually ask

for grammatical explanations

Your example breaks the rules for how tenses are formed.

How to form Simple Past tense

I talked Here, the suffix '-ed' denotes the past

I did not talk. Here, the auxiliary verb 'did' denotes the past, and the main verb must be in base form only.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (22,479)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Verbs, Tenses, Auxiliaries, Simple Past, Past Tenses, Past Simple

Anonymous

#484197 Sun, 02 Mar 08 09:45 PM

I think the best way to explain this is telling your friend that in English you use only one verbal element to indicate the tense. In this sentence the auxiliary "did" is indicating the past tense so you should keep the verb in the infinitive. Otherwise it will be redundant.

I hope your friend can understand it.

Best wishes,